Sistani -- NOT a Fundamentalist.

[Hatalles]

I'm troubled by some posters so quick to brand Sistani a fundamentalist. Any foreign Muslim leader with a beard who doesn't wear a suit and tie isn't always a fundamentalist, ya know?

He's been one of the few voices of reason in Iraq since the war began. The Iraqi people chose the right ticket to vote for and gave the Bush Administration the finger at the same time by snubbing their puppet candidate.

Democracy: 1
Bush's Facist Empire: 0

Clip from Yahoo! AP Article:

The leader of the Shiite ticket, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, has promised an inclusive government and a role for the Sunnis and others in drafting the constitution — the major task of the new assembly.

Al-Hakim and other figures in the Alliance spent years in exile in mainly Shiite Iran, but they insist they have no intention of transforming Iraq into a clerical-run state. The ticket was endorsed by Iraq's most revered top Shiite cleric, the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Disturbed]

1. Civil War in Iraq?

I have long felt that there would not be one as the Bush Junta kept shouting there would be. The Iraqis may find a way to share power with the three main groups and form an actual Brit style democracy.

[izzie]

2. I never thought he was.

I think he will take over or who he wants. We all have to put up with these right wing nuts. He. I bet. is as sick of them as we are with our right wing nuts.

[davhill]

3. Politically he may be moderate

But he is very conservative on womans rights and religous tolerance.

[SoCalDem]

4. It really does not matter WHO runs Iraq.

Iraq is very much like Yugoslavia (except they kind of liked Tito)..
Once Tito died, and the Soviets fell, Yugoslavia came apart at the seams...just like Iraq will do.. Iraq is an "artificial country", and the "glue" holding it all together was Saddam.

We are pretending that "just-add-water-and-stir" democracy will solve all their problems.. It won't.

The civilization that gave us Algebra, poetry, art and so much more, is long dead.. what replaced it was barbaric vendetta-ridden anarchy, and now that we blew the lid off whatever stability they had, all bets are off..

people who have been repressed for 2 generations, are not likely to treat their oppressors "gently"..and people who ruled for 30-40 years will not go away quietly..

as long as we stay there with guns, and are willing to sacrifice OUR treasure and OUR soldiers' lives, there could be some sort of order, but once we have no more stomach for it, and bring our people home, we will probably see a "really BIG Iran".. I have a sneaky feeling that the Shi'ites in Iraq, are going to align with Iran and tell US to go pound sand:(

[trumad]

5. Well said

as a matter of fact, that's the best description of the future of Iraq that I have read in a long time.